This Metric Says You Are Smart to Buy Haemonetics Corporation (HAE)

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of gauges shareholders can use to analyze the equity markets. A duo of the best are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see just how much).

Just as useful, positive insider trading activity is another way to look at the marketplace. There are a variety of incentives for an executive to downsize shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this tactic if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).

Now that that’s out of the way, we’re going to examine the latest info for Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE).

How are hedge funds trading Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE)?

Heading into Q3, a total of 14 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 27% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully.

When using filings from the hedgies we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE). Royce & Associates has a $13.6 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $9.7 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Bill Miller’s Legg Mason Capital Management.

As one would understandably expect, specific money managers have jumped into Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE) headfirst. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, created the biggest position in Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE). Royce & Associates had 13.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also made a $9.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new HAE investors: Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, and Bill Miller’s Legg Mason Capital Management.

What have insiders been doing with Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE)?

Insider buying is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time frame, Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

We’ll check out the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE). These stocks are Insulet Corporation (NASDAQ:PODD), HeartWare International Inc (NASDAQ:HTWR), West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. (NYSE:WST), Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HRC), and Thoratec Corporation (NASDAQ:THOR). This group of stocks are in the medical instruments & supplies industry and their market caps are similar to HAE’s market cap.